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Don’t Jump the Gun

By Gino Blefari | February 2nd, 2012 0 Comments

“You may not find what you were looking for, but you find something else equally important.” – Robert Noyce

Last week we discussed the overview of Chapter 3 from the book Great by Choice.  This week I would like to move onto Chapter 4: Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs.

Imagine yourself at sea with an enemy ship approaching.  You have two choices on how to attack; 1) Fire one giant cannonball in the general direction of the enemy ship and hope it hits (using up  all of your gunpowder in the process) , or 2) fire a few bullets to align your target first, and then follow up with a cannonball for a perfect shot.   Although the first option may seem enticing, the second allows you to adjust accordingly for a more accurate and successful blast.

Before Amgen made their success in Erythropoietin (EPO), they fired lots of bullets (an empirical test aimed at learning what works and that meets three criteria: low cost, low risk, and low distraction) to figure out what would work.  Once they saw some promise in EPO, they added more gunpowder (more specific testing) and eventually shot a cannonball to execute it.   EPO became the first super-blockbuster bioengineered product in history.  If Amgen had not tested multiple avenues prior to launching, they would not be the name we know today.  Amgen could have easily fired a cannonball with the first idea they had resulting in time and money blown to pieces.

The challenge is not getting ahead of oneself.  Problems arise when companies start firing cannonballs to soon.  PSA launched a cannonball called “Fly-Drive-Sleep” which sounds like a great concept, and it could have been if PSA had fired a series of bullets in a few areas by buying one hotel and partnering with a local rental car company.  Instead, they bought and leased 25 hotels and bought a rental company.   The program went too big too fast generating losses for years to come.  The problem was there was no test; no way to work out the kinks and try other models.  PSA had one shot to win it all or lose it and they lost it.

Of course even 10Xers make mistakes firing cannonballs before they’re ready for it.  The difference is instead of trying to recover by firing another cannonball which can make things worse; they take it as a learning opportunity and start over, only firing another cannonball when it has been calibrated.  A calibrated cannonball has confirmation based on actual experience.  The other option would be an uncalibrated cannonball which would mean placing a big bet without empirical validation.

What is the point of all of this?  Well, no one can predict the future.  If we knew which bullets would stick, we would just execute those.  This is why firing multiple bullets is so important.  It gives more validation of an idea allowing us to move forward with a more educated and formulated concept ultimately resulting in more success.

I have experienced this process first hand through the development of our insurance partner, Cause Insurance, a full service, “cause driven” insurance brokerage firm with a philanthropic focus. They provide the best insurance at competitive pricing while giving up to 20% of their commissions earned to the charity of the clients’ choice.  Just think, if all 2,000 Intero agents were set up with Cause Insurance they would not only be likely  to save money and get better insurance coverage, they could potentially raise up to $200,000 for The Intero Foundation just this year and every year after that on renewal.  Of course, Cause Insurance couldn’t just pop up and be successful; they have fired many bullets, realigned, and shot again.  These bullets will continue to be shot until they are ready to shoot a calibrated cannonball with the firm evidence of success.

The following are the key points found at the end of Chapter 4 to help you better understand the effectiveness and importance of firing bullets, then cannonballs:

  • A “Fire bullet, then cannonballs” approach better explains the success of 10X companies than big-leap innovations and predictive genius.
  • A bullet is a low-cost, low-risk, and low-distraction test or experiment.  10Xers use bullets to empirically validate what will actually work.  Based on that empirical validation, they then concentrate their resources to fire a cannonball, enabling large returns from concentrated bets.
  • Our 10X cases fired a significant number of bullets that never hit anything.  They didn’t know ahead of time which bullets would hit or be successful.
  • 10Xers periodically made the mistake of firing an uncalibrated cannonball, but they tended to self-correct quickly.  The comparison cases were more likely to try to fix their mistakes by firing yet another uncalibrated cannonball, compounding their problems.
  • The idea is not to choose between bullets or cannonballs but to fire bullets first, then fire cannonballs.

Which of the following behaviors do you most need to increase?

  • Firing enough bullets
  • Resisting the temptation to fire uncalibrated cannonballs
  • Committing, by converting bullets into cannonballs once you have empirical validation

Reference: Great by Choice by Jim Collins

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Thoughts on Leadership:10Xers

By Gino Blefari | January 19th, 2012 0 Comments

Last week I introduced Chapter 1 from the book Great by Choice by Jim Collins. This week I would like to continue our discussion on this superb book and focus on Chapter 2: 10Xers, which explains how people become 10Xers.

We begin by taking a look at the story of Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott.

In October 1911, two teams of adventurers made their final preparations in their quest to be the first people in modern history to reach the South Pole. For one team, it would be a race to victory and a safe return home. For members of the second team, it would be a devastating defeat, reaching the Pole only to find the wind-whipped flags of their rivals planted 34 days earlier, followed by a race for their lives – a race that they lost in the end.

It was a near-perfect matched pair. There were two expedition leaders – Roald Amundsen, the winner, and Robert Falcon Scott, the loser – of similar ages and with comparable experience. Amundsen led the first successful journey through the Northwest Passage and joined the first expedition to spend the winter in Antarctica; Scott led a South Pole expedition in 1902, reaching 82 degrees South. Amundsen and Scott started their respective journeys for the Pole within days of each other, both facing an uncertain and unforgiving environment and no means of communication. One leader led his team to victory and safety. The other led his team to defeat and death.

What separated these two men? Why did one achieve spectacular success in such an extreme set of conditions, while the other failed even to survive? It’s a fascinating question and a vivid analogy for our overall topic. Here were two leaders, both on quests for extreme achievement in an extreme environment. And it turns out that the 10X business leaders in Collins’ research behaved very much like Amundsen and the comparison leaders behaved much more like Scott.

Amundsen and Scott achieved dramatically different outcomes not because they faced dramatically different circumstances. In the first 34 days of their respective expeditions, Amundsen and Scott had exactly the same ratio, 56 percent, of good days to bad days of weather. If they faced the same environment in the same year with the same goal, the causes of their respective success and failure simply cannot be the environment. They had divergent outcomes principally because they displayed very different behaviors.

This was also true for the leaders in Collins research study. Like Amundsen and Scott, their matched pairs were vulnerable to the same environments at the same time. Yet some leaders proved themselves to be 10Xers while leaders on the other side of the pair did not. “10Xers” (pronounced “ten-EX-ers”) is Collins term for the people who built the 10X companies. In the research he and his team did, they observed that the 10Xers shared a set of behavioral traits that distinguished them from the comparison leaders. In this chapter they introduce those traits, and in subsequent chapters they describe how their 10Xers led and built successful companies consistent with them.

So, how did the 10Xers distinguish themselves? First, 10Xers embrace a paradox of control and non-control. 10Xers then bring this idea to life by a triad of core behaviors: fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia. Animating these three core behaviors is a central motivating force, Level 5 ambition. (See diagram below “10X Leadership.”) These behavioral traits, which they introduce in the remainder of chapter 2, correlate with achieving 10X results in chaotic and uncertain environments. Fanatic discipline keeps 10X enterprises on track, empirical creativity keeps them vibrant, productive paranoia keeps them alive, and Level 5 ambition provides inspired motivation.

The following are the key points found at the end of Chapter 2 to help you better understand the effectiveness and importance of 10Xers:

  • Clear-eyed and stoic, 10Xers accept, without complaint, that they face forces beyond their control, that they cannot accurately predict events, and that nothing is certain; yet they utterly reject the idea that luck, chaos, or any other external factor will determine whether they succeed or fail.
  • 10Xers display three core behaviors that, in combination, distinguish them from the leaders of the less successful comparison companies:
    ° Fanatic discipline: 10Xers display extreme consistency of action – consistency with values, goals, performance standards, and methods. They are utterly relentless, monomaniacal, unbending in their focus on their quests.
    ° Empirical creativity: When faced with uncertainty, 10Xers do not look primarily to other people, conventional wisdom, authority figures, or peers for direction; they look primarily to empirical evidence. They rely upon direct observation, practical experimentation, and direct engagement with tangible evidence. They make their bold, creative moves from a sound empirical base.
    ° Productive paranoia: 10Xers maintain hypervigilance, staying highly attuned to threats and changes in their environment, even when – especially when – all’s going well. They assume conditions will turn against them, at perhaps the worst possible moment. They channel their fear and worry into action, preparing, developing contingency plans, building buffers, and maintaining large margins of safety.
  • Underlying the three core 10Xer behaviors is a motivating force: passion and ambition for a cause or company larger than themselves. They have egos, but their egos are channeled into their companies and their purposes, not personal aggrandizement.

As you think about your career – indeed, your life – ask yourself one key question: Rank-order the core 10Xer behaviors – fanatical discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoid – from your strongest to weakest. What can you do to turn your weakest into your strongest?

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Thoughts on Leadership: Thriving in Uncertainty

By Gino Blefari | January 12th, 2012 0 Comments

“The best – perhaps even the only – way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker

Last week I introduced the book GREAT BY CHOICE: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins. I would like to share with you over the next several weeks Jim Collins’ insight on how the choices we make determine our success.

As I continued to work my way through the book for the second time, I realized more people can benefit from this valuable information. In this week’s message we will begin with Chapter 1: Thriving in Uncertainty.

In this chapter Collins outlines his research journey and shares some of the surprises he and his team encountered along the way.

He explains that some companies and leaders navigate in this type of world exceptionally well. They don’t merely react; they create. They don’t merely survive; they prevail. They don’t merely succeed; they thrive. They build great enterprises that can endure. He and his team did not believe that chaos, uncertainty, and instability are good; companies, leaders, organizations, and societies do not thrive on chaos. But they can thrive in chaos.

To get at the question of how, Collins and his team set out to find companies that started from a position of vulnerability, rose to become great companies with spectacular performance, and did so in unstable environments characterized by big forces, out of their control, fast moving, uncertain, and potentially harmful. They then compared these companies to a control group of companies that failed to become great in the same extreme environments, using the contrast between winners and also-rans to uncover the distinguishing factors that allow some to thrive in uncertainty.

They labeled their high-performing study cases with the name “10X” because they didn’t merely get by or just become successful. They truly thrived. Every 10X case beat its industry index by at least 10 times.

To grasp the essence of their study, consider one 10X case, Southwest Airlines. Just think of everything that slammed the airline industry from 1972 to 2002: Fuel shocks. Deregulation. Labor strife. Air-traffic-controller strikes. Crippling recessions. Interest-rate spikes. Hijackings. Bankruptcy after bankruptcy. And in 2001, the terrorist attacks of September 11. And yet if you’d invested $10,000 in Southwest Airlines on December 31, 1972 your $10,000 would have grown to nearly $12 million by the end of 2002, a return 63 times better than the general stock market. In fact, according to an analysis by Money Magazine, Southwest Airlines produced the #1 return to investors of all S&P 500 companies that were publicly traded in 1972 and held for a full 30 years to 2002. These are impressive results by any measure, but they’re astonishing when you take into account the roiling storms, destabilizing shocks, and chronic uncertainty of Southwest’s environment.

Why did Southwest overcome the odds? What did it do to master its own fate? And how did it accomplish its world-beating performance when other airlines did not? Specifically, why did Southwest become great in such an extreme environment while its direct comparison, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), flailed and was rendered irrelevant, despite having the same business model in the same industry with the same opportunity to become great? This single contrast captures the essence of Collins research question.

Collins and his team have been asked by many of their students and readers, “How is this study different from their previous research into great companies, especially Built to Last and Good to Great?” The method is similar and the question of greatness is constant. But in this study, unlike any of the previous research, they selected cases not just on performance or stature but also on the extremity of the environment.

The team selected on performance plus environment for two reasons. First, they believe the future will remain unpredictable and the world unstable for the rest of our lives, and they wanted to understand the factors that distinguish great organizations, those that prevail against extreme odds, in such environments. Second, by looking at the best companies and their leaders in extreme environments, they gain insights that might otherwise remain hidden when studying leaders in more tranquil settings.

Studying leaders in an extreme environment is like conducting a behavioral-science experiment or using a laboratory separator: throw leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity. Collins’ study looks at how the truly great differed from the merely good in environments that exposed and amplified those differences.

Thriving in a chaotic world is not just a business challenge. In fact, all our work is not fundamentally about business, but about the principles that distinguish great organizations from good ones. Greatness is not just a business quest; it’s a human quest.

Next week’s Thoughts on Leadership will feature Chapter 2: 10Xers

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Thoughts on Leadership: Great by Choice

By Gino Blefari | January 5th, 2012 0 Comments

For the past few weeks, I have been listening to the book GREAT BY CHOICE: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins. This book is that good and powerful. It’s also my second time reading it. Jim has authored and co-authored six books that have sold in total more than ten million copies worldwide. They include: the international bestseller Good to Great, translated into 35 languages; the classic Built to Last, a fixture on the Business Week best seller list for more than six years; and How the Mighty Fall, a New York Times bestseller that examines how great companies can self-destruct.

For the next several weeks I would like to share the book Great by Choice and Jim Collins’ insight on how the choices we make determine our success.

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies – how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. He has invested nearly a quarter of a century of research into the topic.

His most recent book Great by Choice, co-authored with Morten Hansen, shares the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times. Based on nine years of research, it answers the question: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not?

Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Jim’s prior books by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today.

With a team of more than twenty researchers, Collins and Hansen studied companies that rose to greatness – beating their industry indexes by a minimum of ten times over fifteen years – in environments characterized by big forces and rapid shifts that leaders could not predict or control. The research team then contrasted these “10X companies” to a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to achieve greatness in similarly extreme environments.

The study results were full of stimulating surprises such as:

  • The best leaders were not more risk taking, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons; they were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.
  • Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card in a chaotic and uncertain world; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline.
  • Following the belief that leading in a “fast world” always requires “fast decisions” and “fast action” is a good way to get killed.
  • The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies.

Great by Choice is classic Collins: contrarian, data-driven, and uplifting. He and Hansen show convincingly that, even in a chaotic and uncertain world, greatness happens by choice, not chance.

Stay tuned for next week’s Thought on Leadership which will cover Chapter 1: Thriving in Uncertainty.

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Thoughts on Leadership: The GIFTS that Leaders Give

By Gino Blefari | December 15th, 2011 0 Comments

This is the time of year when many people exchange gifts and messages of gratitude for the things we do for each other. As a leader, the gift you bring to your organization is important in many ways. “Gifts” take on a whole new meaning, as they aren’t material things you can hold in your hand, but qualities that you bring to the table to lead a team to success.

Here’s what we mean by G-I-F-T-S from great leaders:

G: Generosity

A leader’s generosity will spread quickly through a company. Being generous often means understanding that most people want to feel that they are part of something bigger and that what they do matters.

I: Inspiration

Leaders always make us feel we can do more than we’re currently doing. In order to inspire, a leader needs to show by example rather than tell others to be inspired.

F: Focus

Good leaders provide clear, consistent communication to all. There is no mistaking the goal and what needs to happen to achieve the goals. Bottom line, there’s power in the alignment effort that comes from focus.

T: Teamwork

Good leaders take us from “me” to “we.” The leader will model positive behavior and encourage people to work together to achieve success. There is indeed a connection between people and cross-functional communication.

S: Success

It’s the power of “we” that achieves great things. The greatest outcome is to see how someone can step up and lead a group to accomplish together what seems unattainable on our own.

A good leader brings these gifts to an organization wrapped in his or her own unique style. These contributions tend to have a lasting impact, pushing a team to success.

What are the gifts your leadership style brings? Embrace the principle of G-I-F-T-S and you will find that you and your team can go further and perform at a higher level.

As we close out the year and open a new one, we challenge you to examine the kind of gifts you give to others throughout the year. Be mindful with your contributions and you will no doubt become a superior leader in your business.

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Thoughts on Leadership: ‘Thanks-Giving’ Is a Powerful Leadership Tool

By Gino Blefari | November 24th, 2011 0 Comments

Thanksgiving brings to mind family, food and football (HarBowl 2011 – Go Niners)! But it’s also a special holiday in which we celebrate gratitude and think about the things in life for which we are thankful.

As we move full-steam into the holiday season, I’ve started thinking about how great leaders show genuine appreciation for the efforts of those they lead. They create situations to recognize those efforts in special ways that connect with their followers.

A little “thanks” goes a long way, as long as it is specific and genuine. Excellent shows of appreciation by managers and leaders can improve employee morale and motivation.

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, spend time over the next few days working on and implementing one or all three of these ideas:

  1. Invest a few minutes each day to write down a couple of specific things you appreciate about each of the people on your team. Then, invest just one to two minutes with each individual person to share what you wrote in a face-to-face conversation.
  2. In your next staff meeting, open it up by going around the table one person at a time and share one thing you appreciate about each individual on your team. The public show of appreciation will have a huge impact on the overall morale of your team and create a collective and contagious positive feeling.
  3. Write a hand-written “Thank You” note expressing your gratitude for the contributions your team member has made. Again, be specific as to what it is the team member does to contribute to the effort. Handwritten notes tend to be forgotten about in this day of e-mail and text messaging and I guarantee will have a huge impact.

During this week of Thanksgiving celebration, we are given a wonderful opportunity to express our gratitude and thanks in several ways to all who support us in our business and life endeavors.

This is a short work week for many of us, and that may create added pressure, especially if you are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. Consider your priorities: Is there room for a little reflection and reaching out to clients, customers and colleagues in a meaningful way? Think about a time when someone went the extra mile to let you know how you’ve touched their life.

In addition to the ideas above, the following is a leadership list of “Thanks-Giving” to help you reach out and say thanks to those you have the privilege of leading and serving:

  • Be grateful that you were given or developed the patience to cope with the daily stresses and strains of leadership. Keep reminding yourself that it’s all worth it in the end.
  • Be inspired to motivate, coach and teach those who invest valuable time in their lives and careers with you.
  • Be in awe of the opportunity that you have in front of you to positively impact people in ways that few other jobs or professions provide.
  • Give thanks for your chance to learn from others.
  • Be grateful for your unique chance to serve others.
  • And most of all, just give thanks by speaking up and remembering that a well-placed, heartfelt “Thank you” is one of the most powerful and important leadership tools.

What gratitude offerings will you extend this week and during this holiday season ahead?

Look at your client list and pick one unique quality that you appreciate about each person on your list. How have they impacted your business and/or life?

Now, step into your genuine self and, in true leadership style, let them know.

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Thoughts on Leadership: Kevin Moles

By Gino Blefari | November 17th, 2011 0 Comments

This post is dedicated to my friend and partner, Kevin Moles. He has left us all too soon.

There are a few defining moments in a lifetime, and Kevin Moles has played a pivotal role in more than one of mine. We met in Sunnyvale, CA at Inverness School when Kevin was in the 2nd grade, I in the 3rd grade and Bob Moles was in the 4th grade. We even played on the same Metro Little League team. Kevin taught me a great deal in my early years as a manager for Contempo Realty, and we later became business partners. In the early days of Intero, Kevin led with his own brand of compassionate, cowboy management. In his honor, I offer reflections on leadership lessons learned from Kevin Moles. May they become life lessons for us all.

  1. Loyalty
    The first trait that comes to mind when I think of Kevin is loyalty. Kevin was a loyal friend and business partner, and he engendered a unique loyalty from his agents. Larry Klapow, Intero San Mateo, remembers Kevin as a competitor:  “As a brand new manager for Coldwell Banker in Morgan Hill, I could never recruit from Kevin’s office. And later, when Coldwell Banker acquired Contempo and I was promoted to Regional Manager overseeing Kevin, he treated me so well and so decent.”
  2. Family
    For years, Kevin created a family culture in his office. There have been second generation real estate careers launched through Kevin’s real estate family. As an employee and family member of the Intero Morgan Hill office, Teressa Francis, Intero HQ, spent time over the weekend reminiscing, “No one could keep us together like Kevin – he kept us tight, inspired us, and created a family – he was always there for everyone.”
  3. Courage
    We all have to take leaps of faith from time to time. When Kevin opened the first Intero office in late October 2002, he couldn’t be sure who would come. His loyal following is legendary, but Kevin first had to be the kind of person who would have the courage to make the leap.
  4. Philosophy
    In so many ways Kevin and I were different. However, we bonded over the teachings of Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra & Robin Sharma. Kevin was a thinker and a student of human nature. I’ll never forget the time when we had coffee and spent several hours discussing “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma.
  5. Work Hard/Play Hard
    Kevin had an old school work ethic, and at the same time whenever a humorous diversion was needed, Kevin was first to step up. Jerry Kiss, Intero Gilroy, says “If he ever had a question about a legal issue and didn’t want to speak to an attorney, Kevin always gave the best advice – he always had a solution.” On the flip side, John Thompson, Intero Los Altos, remembers “Back in the day, before Intero, if I was going to any boring, corporate event, I was always hoping that I was sitting next to Kevin. Number one, I would be getting in trouble by doing so, and, number two, Kevin made getting in trouble enjoyable.”
  6. Compassion
    Anyone who has spent time in the Morgan Hill office knew Kevin’s door was open. Ben Bruno, Intero Morgan Hill, remembers Kevin’s generous spirit. “Kevin was always first in line with his wallet, time, and counseling. I was able to come to him for anything, and after he was done, I would walk away with my head held up high. If you were lucky enough to have spent any amount of time with Kevin, he touched you, moved you, and caused you to be a better person because of your relationship with him.” Tom Tognoli, Intero Saratoga, remembers “The best bear hug – Kevin would let you know how one felt.”
  7. Natural Strength
    One of the characteristics I admired most in Kevin was his natural strength. This isn’t something you develop in the gym. It comes from a life lived, with ups and downs. Renee Kunz, Intero Hollister, says “Kevin had the ability to greet you with a smile and his boots; I will always remember him wearing his boots. Those boots did a lot of walking – he was a great man.”

There can be no doubt that Kevin Moles was an original, who has had an impact on so many – family, friends, and colleagues. Smart, funny, resourceful, and tuned in, Kevin will be remembered for his larger than life personality, as a rebel with a quiet strength that encouraged others to stand taller.

I will miss my friend, Kevin Moles.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes … the ones who see things differently – they’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. … You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. … They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

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Thoughts on Leadership: Al Davis – The Leader behind the Silver and Black

By Gino Blefari | October 20th, 2011 0 Comments

“Just win, baby.” –Al Davis

Controversial and combative are two words often used to describe Al Davis, the principal owner of the Oakland Raiders who died Oct. 8. He was much more than that – a creator, a builder and a dedicated believer in his team. His story as he described it was a “tunnel life” focused on football.

“He was my best friend,” said former Raiders Coach John Madden. “It’s Al Davis. Al Davis doesn’t die. Just the shock of it. Even though you could see him and knew he was sick and he was failing, he is a fighter, he fights that, you know he was gonna beat it.”

Davis died a legend, even as he led a struggling organization. His Raiders, a dominant force from the mid-’60s through the mid-’80s, hadn’t recorded a winning season in 10 years. Their last Super Bowl victory occurred when he was a “mere” 54 years old. At 82, many fans and critics felt he’d lost his touch, that he had held on to his power for too long.

Davis led the Raiders for all but three of the team’s 52 seasons as coach, general manager or owner. Under this leadership, the Raiders won three Super Bowls and 15 AFC-West divisional titles. He was an ambitious and driven leader who pushed for greatness, victory and dominance. He could be abrasive and demanding, and always expected blind loyalty. His well-known catch phrase was “Don’t adjust. Just dominate.”

Davis took on the established order, attacking the NFL. He created an image of the Raiders as aggressive, nasty and powerful. He was behind the selection of a pirate logo and silver and black color scheme. Davis is also credited with hiring the first black and Hispanic head coaches in the NFL. He also recently appointed the first female CEO.

As a pro football team owner, Davis was often involved in details and decisions atypical for such a figure. This appeared to some to work poorly later in his career as he was criticized for poor personnel selection, feuding with star players, and an inability to retain head coaches. He was thought by many to be a stubborn, eccentric old man who couldn’t accept that his best leadership years had passed.

Nevertheless, as argumentative as Davis could be, his career as outlined in his New York Times obituary holds lessons for any manager looking for an example of how and how not to lead change.

Leadership lessons:·

  • Be clear in your mission. “Just win, baby!” was the Raider’s motto. Respect was not something Davis craved for his team. He wanted others to fear him, and in part it led him to design the Raider’s colors and logo.
  • Know the game. Davis played football in college and began as an assistant upon graduation. He served as an assistant to the legendary Sid Gilman who coached the San Diego Chargers and from 1963 (except for a short time in 1966 when he was commissioner of the American Football League), he was either coach or owner of the Oakland Raiders.
  • Promote talent. Al Davis was a shrewd judge of football management potential. He promoted John Madden to head coach and he piloted the Raiders to their first Super Bowl title. Such was his push for talent that Davis hired the first Hispanic coach, Tom Flores, and the first black head coach, Art Schell.
  • Stand up for what you believe. Davis was head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1963 to 1966, but gave it up to serve as the commissioner of the American Football League, which was the upstart to the lordly National Football League. Under his watch, the AFL gathered NFL stars and drove up signing bonuses for college players.

Like all leaders Al Davis was not perfect, and very often his imperfections were more evident, but he built a sustainable football franchise and its value has only risen with the times.

“He was a pioneer,” said Jim Plunkett, who won two Super Bowls with the Raiders. “He did so many things. He was a coach, he was the commissioner of the AFL, became the owner of the Raiders and he ran that club the way he saw fit. He brought in players that everyone else was discarding, including me, and he made it work.”

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Thoughts on Leadership: Teaching Others How to Accept Change

By Gino Blefari | September 29th, 2011 0 Comments

Last week, we looked at how the greatest leaders are those who can adapt to change. This week is a further look at how leaders need to concentrate on having their people go from change avoidance to change acceptance.

A great example is found in the classic book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” Author Dr. Spencer Johnson tells a simple but powerful story about four characters in a “maze” who are obsessed with finding “cheese.” Two of the characters are mice named Sniff and Scurry and two are “little people,” Hem and Haw, who are as small as mice but have a very different approach to finding cheese. The “cheese” is a metaphor for anything we want or desire in life. It could be a great job, a terrific company with flowing profits, or the relationship of your dreams. The “maze,” says Johnson, is “where you look for what you want—the organization you work in or the family or community you live in.”

Change is the only constant in business and in life, yet all four characters in the book see it very differently. The mice expect it, revel in it and actually figure out how to have fun looking for new cheese as the old cheese disappears. However, Hem and Haw seem constantly frustrated, resentful and angry. But the “cheese” they were convinced they earned and owned is no longer where they expected it to be. Johnson explains, “It would all be so easy if you had a map to the maze. If the same old routines worked. If they just stopped moving ‘the cheese,’ but things keep changing.”

The simple story of “Who Moved My Cheese?” reveals profound truths about change that give people and organizations a quick and easy way to succeed when change happens. Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective.

I was a co-owner of Contempo Realty in 1997 when we sold our company to NRT, what is now known as Realogy. I was surprised and caught off guard when they announced to us that our new brand would be Century 21. This was an unexpected change and quite frankly stunned most of us as we all presumed the transition would be to Coldwell Banker. Uncertain of this new adventure and what operations would be like moving forward, we knew that wishful thinking was no substitute for a strategic plan. In order to compete as our new brand we had to sharpen our skills and work at a higher level.

Looking back today, I see that it was a blessing in disguise. To help employees accept the big changes that were happening around them, I gave each employee the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” My intent was for each of them to understand the message within the book, that everyone can view change as a blessing if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. I wanted each one of them to seek out new opportunities and quit the “it’s-not-fair” attitude and instead seek opportunity.

In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with change successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls. When you come to see “The Handwriting on the Wall” you can discover for yourself how to deal with change and enjoy more success and less stress in your work and in your life.

Resistance to change is a dead-end street. “Who Moved My Cheese?” provides a simple, powerful message to the person confronted with unwelcome change.

Learn to think more like a mouse. Don’t depend upon the status quo. Realize change happens and circumstances, which may have favored you in the past, will change in the future. Accept that you can’t control change and are not entitled to things remaining the same.

While there’s no single way to deal with change, the consequence of pretending change won’t happen is always the same: The cheese runs out.

“Who Moved My Cheese?” is a rare book that can be read and understood quickly by everyone who wants to succeed in changing times.

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Thoughts on Leadership: Stop Fighting Change

By Gino Blefari | September 22nd, 2011 0 Comments

Successful leadership requires many skills, but one of the most important is learning how to deal with change. Change is a funny thing. We all know it is inevitable, but we often resist it. Great leaders, however, look at change and embrace it. They understand that change, though scary and stressful, creates opportunities. Change can offer a challenge to be more creative, flexible and strategic.

When thinking about change, I often turn to Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. Mike Ferry originally introduced me to his inspiring leadership traits. Welch is one of the most well known “big businessmen” of his generation and offers a lot of insight into how successful leaders deal with change. Welch is also interesting to me because when he first joined GE in 1960, he worked as a junior engineer in my hometown of Pittsfield, Mass., making $10,500 a year.

Many may not know this, but Welch was almost fired from GE because he once blew the roof off the factory. Then after a year of hard work, he was not happy with the $1,000 raise he was offered. He felt unappreciated and dissatisfied with GE’s strict bureaucracy after learning that everyone in his department received the same $1,000 raise. He almost quit GE at the time, but was talked out of it by a higher-level supervisor.

Welch went on to be named vice president of GE in 1972. He moved his way up the ranks and eventually was named CEO in 1981. As CEO, he took apart a lot of the earlier management team put together by his predecessor, creating real change from day one.

I model my leadership style after Welch because he focused on the principle, “Embrace change; don’t fear it.” Why fear something you know will happen again and again? That’s no way to live, and definitely no way to run a business.

Change keeps everyone alert and on their toes. It’s the reality of business. Welch was able to turn a struggling, slow-moving corporate giant into a dynamic and growing company. The goal may be the same, never-ending growth but he said that the tools and methods were constantly changing. He encouraged his colleagues to never stop thinking about the need for change. Only through “massive change” could G.E. win, something Welch firmly believed in.

The leaders of many organizations refuse to see the handwriting on the wall and just hope that things will get better. Yet, wishful thinking is no substitute for a strategic plan. Lasting leaders not only come up with real solutions and partnerships, but they also constantly motivate and inspire team members to get past their fears of change and rise to the challenge.

Change isn’t easy. We all seek stability and predictability. But today more than ever change keeps hitting us in the face just when we think we can afford to get comfortable. So stop fighting change. It is no use and complaining isn’t a practical option.

Ask yourself: How are YOU leading your team as well as yourself and facing the constant changes in the “maze” of your life?

The following are each great books written by Welch that I recommend all leaders read for inspiration and insight: “Straight from the Gut,” “Winning, Jack Welch and the GE Way,” “Jack Welch and the 4 E’s of Leadership,” “29 Leadership Secrets,” and “Jack Welch Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World’s Greatest Business Leader.”

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